Commenting on Global Politics, items of concern to Marcus Aurelius, and everything in between!

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

A Political Prisoner in The Netherlands.

Yes, the Netherlands has political prisoners. Not in the way you think.

First we need to go over some recent Netherland history, the stories of Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh.

Pim FortuynPim was a flamboyant Dutch politician who was assassinated. Pim was worried about the influx of Islamic immigrants would displace the local culture and The Netherlands would turn from its tolerant ways. See this BBC obituary on Pim.

His murderer a 33 year old Netherlander by the name of Volkert Van der Graaf confessed to the murder and this CNN report states:

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- The man accused of assassinating Dutch anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn has told judges he acted on behalf of the country's Muslims.

Volkert Van der Graaf, 33, said during his first court appearance in Amsterdam on Thursday that Fortuyn was using "the weakest parts of society to score points" and gain political power.

IIRC the killer was an active member of some animal rights group. Here is how the nation's Muslims returned the favor.

Theo Van GoghTheo Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker and made a film with Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The film was critical of how women are treated in Islam and was broadcast on Dutch TV. Theo and Ayaan received death threats over this film.

Then last fall Theo was murdered. He was shot, his neck slashed, and the murderer pinned a note to his chest with a knife. Reportedly this note warned that Ayaan was next on the list. Reportedly in his final moments Theo asked to talk about it with his murderer. Ironically his last film was on the murder of Pim Fortuyn.

Theo's murderer was a young Moroccan.

Geert Wilders: A Political Prisoner in the NetherlandsIs the Dutch political prisoner. He is in prison (more specifically the prison's prison) for his own protection due to threats on his life. Geert too is concerned that unchecked immigration will cause the Netherlands to lose its soul. So Geert resides in a prison while those who would kill him are free to roam at will. Geert does travel about every now and then but is accompanied by a large contingent of security personal.

Ayan Hirsi AliTheo's still living partner in filmmaking Ayaan Hirsi Ali a Somali born woman, now resides on a Naval base.

The Netherlands has two very tough fights on its hands. The first fight is against unchecked immigration of those who refuse to assimilate. The North African immigrants as soon as they get a large enough will start enacting the Sharia and this is bad news. Then the other fight is a civil war. The Dutch need to practice their own tolerance on those within the nation they disagree with, if they are busy fighting each other they can not fight the more dangerous fight.

When I toured Amsterdam, the guy conducting the tour was rightly proud of how tolerant their nation was and stated this was on reason they were a rich nation. He proudly pointed to the door of Ann Frank. If they don't wake up that will turn around and the Netherlands will become a nation of stonings for getting stoned.